Since the national organic regulations went into effect in 2001, AWI has called on the US Department of Agriculture and the National Organic Standards Board to establish animal welfare requirements for producers that are certified organic via the National Organic Program.
Date created: July 1, 2016
Last updated: January 15, 2020
USDA appears to be pushing ahead with a controversial proposal to modify its poultry slaughter inspection program despite a troubling report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Date created: December 6, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and WildEarth Guardians (Guardians), represented by the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), notified the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Wildlife Services program of their intent to sue over the program’s failure to ensure that it is not harming ocelots, which are listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Date created: September 3, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Fourteen-year-old Canyon Mansfield was walking with Kasey, his Labrador retriever, near his house when he noticed what looked like a sprinkler head.
Date created: June 21, 2017
Last updated: April 24, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is extremely disappointed by the revised meat and poultry guidelines released yesterday by the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
Date created: August 29, 2024
Last updated: September 25, 2024
On February 3, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) abruptly removed from its website inspection reports and other key documents relating to enforcement of the Horse Protection Act (HPA) and the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
Date created: March 17, 2017
Last updated: November 19, 2019
Thomas Vilsack has returned as secretary of the US Department of Agriculture, a post he held previously during the Obama administration. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, spent the past four years lobbying for the US dairy industry.
Date created: March 24, 2021
Last updated: March 24, 2021
The US Department of Agriculture recently proposed new “routine uses” of records under the federal Privacy Act that determine disclosure of information outside the department. The USDA seems determined to make permanent the drastic limitations on the information it makes available to the public regarding the compliance history of licensees under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the Horse Protection Act (HPA).
Date created: January 2, 2020
Last updated: April 17, 2024
On November 4, 2014, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Kevin Shea filed a 10-page complaint alleging a plethora of willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (SCBT), one of the world’s largest suppliers of research antibodies.
Date created: December 9, 2014
Last updated: December 4, 2019
The US Department of Agriculture is making significant changes to the licensing requirements under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and is increasing requirements for dogs at the premises of dealers, research facilities, and exhibitors. The final regulations, published in the Federal Register on May 13, will go into effect in November.
Date created: June 17, 2020
Last updated: May 14, 2021
After the public outcry regarding the US Department of Agriculture’s scrubbing of inspection records and other important enforcement documents from its website, the department began to restore selected records online.
Date created: June 21, 2017
Last updated: June 21, 2017
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a lawsuit against USDA for its failure to protect the public from antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella.
Date created: August 22, 2014
Last updated: January 8, 2020
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Farm Sanctuary sued the US Department of Agriculture in federal court for failing to require humane handling of poultry at slaughter, resulting in adulterated (i.e., damaged or contaminated) products that violate the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA).
Date created: August 13, 2020
Last updated: January 18, 2024
An administrative hearing is underway with respect to allegations of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations leveled by the US Department of Agriculture against Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR), a supplier of chinchillas for experimentation.
Date created: August 19, 2021
Last updated: April 17, 2024
Today, the US Department of Agriculture published a final rule to end the brutal practice of horse soring at Tennessee walking horse shows.
Date created: May 8, 2024
Last updated: September 5, 2024
In January, the US Department of Agriculture proposed withdrawing the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule.
Date created: March 23, 2018
Last updated: March 23, 2018
Imagine 3,000 dead chickens piled in a truck after a company failed to protect them from freezing conditions during transport, or watching someone at a slaughterhouse place the heads (instead of the legs) of live birds into shackles and intentionally pull on their bodies to decapitate them.
Date created: December 23, 2016
Last updated: January 15, 2020
In response to a string of recent natural disasters, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a rule in December making it mandatory that all dealers, exhibitors, intermediate handlers, carriers, research facilities, and other entities regulated by the agency under the Animal Welfare Act have an emergency or contingency plan—the better to save the lives of employees and animals in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.
Date created: May 21, 2013
Last updated: May 20, 2021
Due to AWI’s efforts, thousands of records about the treatment of animals at slaughter are now publicly available on the US Department of Agriculture’s website. The documents include records related to enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act that expose inhumane treatment of animals at slaughter facilities across the country.
Date created: June 9, 2021
Last updated: June 23, 2021
The US Department of Agriculture’s case against Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (SCBT), one of the world’s largest research antibody suppliers, is scheduled to be heard by an administrative law judge beginning Tuesday, August 18. The USDA case against SCBT is unprecedented: it is the first time that three separate complaints for willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) have been filed and are pending against a research laboratory.
Date created: August 18, 2015
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In a huge win for transparency and accountability, the US Department of Agriculture has agreed to publicly disclose on its website records related to the treatment of animals in US slaughter plants to settle a lawsuit filed by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Farm Sanctuary.
Date created: January 4, 2022
Last updated: January 18, 2024
Four US senators, led by Sen.
Date created: June 20, 2023
Last updated: June 26, 2023
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) have petitioned the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to amend the US animal export regulations to include “fitness to travel” requirements for all farmed animals exported to any foreign country except those traveling overland to Canada or Mexico.
Date created: February 22, 2011
Last updated: February 2, 2022
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) are leading more than 15 other organizations, farmers, and companies in urging the US Department of Agriculture to finalize the Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards (OLPS) rule.
Date created: October 27, 2022
Last updated: October 27, 2022
A new report by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI)—Humane Slaughter Update: Comparing State and Federal Enforcement of Humane Slaughter Laws— indicates that, more than two years after the shocking depiction of inhumane practices at the Westland-Hallmark slaughter plant in California, enforcement of humane slaughter laws has increased at both the state and federal levels, but remains inconsistent and low in comparison with other aspects of food safety inspection.
Date created: October 1, 2010
Last updated: February 2, 2022
